Science reveals to us a new source of food and a valuable agricultural resource
The soybean, which parallels wheat in the substances it contains, is counted among the oldest plants in the world. It was grown in China thousands of years ago, and likewise in Japan; and outside these two countries its cultivation was neglected until the early years of this century, when its food value was discovered and it became one of the important plants of the hot regions and of the northern temperate zones. It is grown today in the United States, the Balkans, the states of the Soviet Union, and Java, and the area of land planted with it continues to grow wider. Scientists in Canada, South Africa, and England are trying to select the varieties that suit the local conditions there.
Oil and protein
The reason for the care given to research on the soybean and its cultivation goes back to what distinguishes this plant from others: it contains a large quantity of oil and protein, more than any
other plant that equals wheat in the amount of nourishment it contains.
Nor is the protein found only in the beans of the soy plant; it is found in the whole plant as well. For this reason those responsible in America have taken care to grow different varieties of it fit to serve as fodder for livestock; the yield of an acre of them is estimated at three tons, a fifth of whose weight is protein.
Research lately carried out by the English has revealed the method by which the variety fit for cultivation in the Middle East may be selected. The most important thing to be observed in distinguishing the regions suited to the cultivation of each variety of soybean is the interval that falls between sunrise and sunset.
Thus, for example, the trees planted in the semi-tropical regions bear no flowers except when the day grows short; and if these trees are planted in the northern regions, where the day is long in the summer season, they do not flower, but wait for the short days of autumn.
And since the Middle East lies within the bounds of the latitude that passes through central China and southern Japan, where the soybean is grown, and likewise through the southern half of the United States, this plant can therefore be grown in that region.
The soybean needs a reasonable quantity of moisture when it is planted, and accordingly it cannot be grown in desert land unless it can be irrigated. On the whole, the soybean will occupy an excellent place in the field of agriculture in many regions in the future.
This week the Royal Society of the United Kingdom is exhibiting beautiful varieties of British textiles made from plants and seaweed, which have drawn the attention of visitors to the textiles and fashions exhibition more than any other industrial products.
These textiles are made by a new and ingenious method, for they are washed in soapy water
as soon as they are woven, and come out in splendid, brilliant colors. Seaweed also helps in the weaving of cotton yarns without their being twisted or twined, for the filaments of which the yarns are made are a blend of cotton filaments and twisted seaweed filaments. After the weaving, the seaweed filaments can be dissolved away in soapy water, leaving behind a cotton fabric stronger than the usual, made of untwisted cotton yarns.
Also on show now at the exhibition are sweaters knitted from new vegetable yarns extracted from peanuts by the scientists of the Imperial Chemical Industries company in England. These yarns are called 'Ardil'; they are artificial yarns possessing all the virtues of woolen yarns with none whatever of the defects of wool, and it is said that this invention is one of the greatest discoveries in the world of textiles in this century.
The Manchester Guardian says that these new artificial yarns were the result of fundamental studies by means of X-rays carried out by the famous English scientist Professor Astbury.